The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the disclosure, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Medical scientists and researchers often require large amounts of in-depth patient data to study different types of diseases and treatments therefor. Ideally, the scientists and researchers would like to constantly and continuously monitor patients having a set of desired attributes (e.g., a condition, a disease, receiving certain treatments, certain demographic traits, etc.) by collecting valuable data through sensors coupled to the patients. In the past, this is only possible in a hospital setting, which limits the availability of patient and the amount of data that can be collected.
Efforts have been made in providing better ways of collecting and redistributing electronic patient data. One of the efforts includes an automated patient health monitoring and management system that monitors and transmits patient data. Another effort includes a medical monitoring system that monitors and wirelessly transmits medical data of a patient in real-time. Other efforts toward improving this field of technology are directed to drug development for selective drug use with individual treatment responsive patients; procuring regulatory data from patients via medical measurement devices; providing medical services and related measurements through computerized means; managing security information associated with wireless patient communications; online health monitoring; providing home health care services; controlling implantable medical device parameters in response to atrial pressure attributes; and providing externally worn transceivers for use with implantable medical devices.
However, all these disclosed systems and/or methods require that the patients be identified before monitoring their data. In addition, the installation of associated sensors can be costly, which might not justify a one-time use, or use for only one study. Thus, there is still a need to improve on the patient data collection and redistribution systems.
Note that all publications identified herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.